Apple releases Logic Pro 9

Logic 9

The latest version of Logic Studio is split into three distinct areas - music production, live performance and a virtual guitar rig. Underpinning these pyramidal keystones is the powerful new Flex Time software.

Flex Time and the Flex Tool

The new Flex Tool allows the user to stretch or squeeze selected parts of an audio track with their mouse - forget all that splicing and time stretching.
Audio Quantise allows one to quantise audio files and their transients like one would a MIDI track, easily, from the arrange page.
Slicing Mode gives the users power to move around drum and percussion hits in not just one, but as many audio files as they like simulataneously, and quantise them as they wish.
Varispeed - speed up or slow down an entire arrangement of audio and MIDI and keep everything in sync.
Speed Fades - create turntable-style stops and starts, in the vein of Timbaland or The Prodigy from the recent 'Take Me To The Hospital' video [1:50].
Tempo Import/Export allows your track can lock to the speed of a specified audio file.

It's taken a while for this update to come out because Apple has been under pressure to successfully deliver tempo-morphing tools on par with Cubase and Ableton. With this challenge out of the way, the Logic team is concentrating on full integration with the ubiquitous Apple hardware. Logic Studio therefore includes a feature to create Apple Loops. This could be a blow to the Spectrasonics and Propellorheads developers, who both have very popular loop tools that Apple users like to use; Stylus and ReCycle respectively.

Other new features in Logic Studio include the ability to import individual tracks from other arrangements. The user can specify exactly what parts of the track they want to bring in, including plug-ins, sends and automation. Logic also comes with all the Jam Packs, many of stackable guitar effects and distortions in the vein of Native Instruments' Guitar Rig series, new streamlined bounce features and a way to convert an audio file into a MIDI file triggering a sampler on the fly.

More info available on the Apple website.

Check out this super-thin Logic Studio keyboard cover ... something Logic users might consider if they shell out on the full software.